How to Beat High Summer Bills With Solar

The longest day of the year and first day of summer is coming on June 21, otherwise known as the Summer Solstice¹, bringing on the season of abundance of sunshine, swimming, air conditioning, and barbecues. With the triple digit weather upon us and the uncontrollable result of high electric bills; it is important to somehow forecast how much to budget to cover the cost of your electrical utilities, and to manage energy usage.

Avoiding increases in utility costs seems unattainable, unless you adopt some new habits to help offset the higher energy rates. First, let’s take a look at the historical cost of electricity. Year after year, the cost of electricity has risen. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, prices for electricity are 63.82% higher in 2018 versus 2000, and since 2000 the average inflation of electricity has increased 2.78% per year. According to Statista² residential electricity prices are estimated to increase by 2.3 percent this year over last year. Since we are almost half way through the year, you may have already felt the effects of this.

To manage the household use of rising electricity, we have some tips and tricks that can help you save on your electrical bill. First and foremost, is to understand how the utility company charges you for electricity. For PG&E customers, there are now two rate options as well as surcharges to the tiered rate structure. For more information on this, read about Time-of-Use Plans (TOU)³. SCE customers can learn more about residential rate plans such as Time-of-Use and Tiered Rate Plans⁴ to see what best suits their household lifestyle.

Learning to conserve electricity can help manage household usage and associated costs such as upgrades to lighting with the use of LED lightbulbs, and energy efficient appliances. Another way is to offset electrical usage with clean, reliable, and more affordable renewable energy such as a SunPower® residential solar system. SunPower’s world record-setting high-efficiency panels produce more energy than conventional panels, which means customers need fewer panels and less roof space to generate the same amount of energy. The more energy you generate on your roof, the less you have to buy from the electric company-so even homeowners with smaller roofs can generate more energy and reduce, or even eliminate their electric bill.

“HOORAY for Solar Power!! How much did we have to pay PG&E for electricity last month? $0.00!!! This is a dream! We have a two-story house and last summer our average bill was $380. 00. We are SO happy! Quality Home Services, provided it using SUNPOWER. AMAZING!!! (...and way less tension over how low to keep the thermostat) – SunPower by QHS Client

^{1 https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/facts-about-june-solstice.html}

^{2https://www.statista.com/statistics/201714/growth-in-us-residential-electricity-prices-since-2000/}

^{3 https://www.pge.com/en_US/residential/rate-plans/how-rates-work/rate-changes/residential-rate-changes/residential-rate-changes.page}

^{4 https://www.sce.com/wps/portal/home/residential/rates/residential-plan/!ut/p/b1/jZBBT8MwDIV_yw49tnFbWAu3gEaXamNsnUaXC0ohTSNlSZUGKvj1BLQLiAG-2fre87MRRTWimr1IwZw0mqmPnk4f4rzAc1IBKe7Oz4CU2RayrIrzm8wDew_AicLwl778x4LELq-XAtGeuS6UujWotnyQT1w7yVTYK6bRPaLfnDZZ4p12s8XqKk4gT47ARQGzebnywHadAknXcFthnAJMj8Avt_iwQpnm8y97rJs096ksb7nlNnq2ftw51w-XAQQwjmMkjBGKR4_mEMBPks4MDtVfSdQf6rdFW5GQNq8jnkzeAaSfe2E!/dl4/d5/L2dBISEvZ0FBIS9nQSEh/}